PSYC 1002 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Robert Zajonc, Stanley Milgram, Operant Conditioning
21 Mar 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Social psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the way individuals" thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are influenced by others. The text focuses on the above six broad topics in social psychology. Perceptions of others can be influenced by a variety of factors, including physical appearance. People tend to attribute desirable characteristics such as sociable, friendly, poised, warm, competent, and well-adjusted to those who are good looking. Research on physical variables in person perception indicate that facial features that are similar to infant features influence perceptions of honesty (baby-faced people being viewed as more honest). People use social schemas, organized clusters of ideas about categories of social events and people, to categorize people into types. Stereotyping is a normal cognitive process involving widely held social schemas that lead people to expect that others will have certain characteristics because of their membership in a specific group. Gender, age, ethnic, and occupational stereotypes are common.
